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Thursday, August 13, 2015

Nethunter 2.0 on a Nexus 7 2013 with the TP-Link TL-WN722N

Note: This fix has only been tested on a Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi edition) only. It may or may not work on other Nexus 7 variants (2012, 2013 LTE, etc.). Your mileage may differ from mine. Also note this is for the Kitkat image as the Lollipop images seem to have broken WN722N support. Also take note this is for the KitKat release and NOT for the Lollipop release.

Some of you might be into mobile penetration testing and use a Nexus 7 for that. Some of you may come across the issue that after upgrading to the latest Kali Linux 2.0, or in this case, Nethunter 2.0, on your Nexus 7, connecting an external WiFi adapter such as the cheap but efficient TP-Link TL-WN722N no longer works. Some might suggest trying to fire up aircrack-ng to 'force' the interface up but if you check your dmesg logs, you will not see it connected.

My guess is the kernel does not recognize it. Now running Kali Linux 2.0 on a VM under OSX or Windows 8.1 for that matter, it works flawlessly without a hitch. After all, Nethunter 2.0 is based on Kali Linux 2.0 right? Unfortunately, not on the Nexus 7 at least for me.

The fix? Just open up the Nethunter launcher on your homescreen, select the first option which is to run the terminal window. You should have root access automatically. If this is the first time you do this, SuperSU or Superuser should prompt you for root rights.

Once in the terminal just do a "apt-get install firmware-atheros". This will grab the Atheros chipset modules and allow them to be loaded onto the kernel. For your information, the WN722N runs on the ath9k_htc module. After finished installing this package, unplug your TL-WN722N and replug it and do a "iwconfig" to confirm it lives. If it doesn't, try unplugging and re-plugging it again or reboot your Nexus 7. It should work by now.


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Zelda

It's been ages since I last blogged (a year plus to be exact but who's counting :P). This is thanks to my new role as being a father to a beautiful daughter whom I named Zelda (for the same reasons as the late Robin Williams, the name was chosen due to my love for the Zelda Nintendo games). She's about 20 months plus now. She's been an angel and a mischievous monkey all these while but the abundance of joy she brings to me is indescribable.

Apart from enjoying my time as a father, there were other changes and achievements from 2013 onwards. I am now a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) since November 2014. So from this, a lot of you might realise that my focus is going back to full time security which I have been doing bits and pieces of it on my time as a network person in the companies that I worked with till today.

Future planning-wise, I still hope one day to settle down overseas. Zelda was conceived during my last few months in Adelaide so some might say she's half Australian made haha.

At the moment, I am focusing now on getting work in Australia or Singapore. Reasons for migration? Zelda's future in terms of education and quality of life. As a Malaysian, I am sad that my country for the past few years is riddled with ridiculous politics and racism. As I have believed strongly before that without religion fanatics and politics bootlickers, this world will be at peace. That's another story for another day though.